During the final year of Boyd Kane’s tenure in Regina, 5-year-old Garrett Mitchell was there watching Kane, the Pats’ team captain, in action.

He began his professional career with the ECHL’s Charlotte Checkers in 1998, playing his first game at Gwinnett.

He was a -5 on the night in a 9-5 loss.

Later that season Kane would join the Hartford Wolf Pack, but it wasn’t until the 2001-02 season that his scoring touch and vision of the ice would start to translate into points.

Three Calder Cups, 31 NHL games and 999 cumulative professional games later, here were are in Bridgeport’s Webster Bank Arena for one of Kane’s big milestones. I caught up with Kane prior to morning skate today, and the interview will air in tonight’s BEARS Radio Network pre-game show.

The BEARS have dropped three consecutive games, and have not lost four straight all season. On the plus side, the team has the second-longest road winning streak of the campaign, a current six-game run. The last time we were here, Ryan Stoa left the game to injury, beginning a run of absences that just ended this weekend. Matt Clackson scored for the BEARS.

And so did Boyd Kane.

The Sound Tigers have yet to lose their targeted NHL players to New York Islanders training camp, so tonight should be a test in the post-Braden-Holtby era. Dany Sabourin is expected to start, with ECHL All-Star goaltender Philipp Grubauer backing up.